Ruebens

I don't know what it is about them, but I love reubens. 

Back to life...back to reality

I started working out again yesterday.  It was a 15 day hiatus.  My hip isn't completely back to normal, but I waited the doctor recommended two weeks.  I will continue to ice it and do my stretches on it, but I can't hold off on exercise any longer.

Yesterday's routine was 4 movements three times each on a 50/10.  Pretty standard, but still challenging.  I got my mom to work out with me yesterday (she's staying with my sister and I for a while until Katie is back to par).

I was pretty proud when she said how deep my squats were.  Such a silly thing, but I was like "heck yeah!" on the inside.

Today, instead of working out, I started refinishing my coffee table.  I wasn't a fan of it's color anymore and I'm thinking some fresh primer and dark blue paint will spruce it up.  It's sitting with wood filler in all the ridges now, drying.

Why not work out today?  Because every single day was too much for my body.  I'm mentally ready for it, but I'm still really out of shape and can't afford to keep tearing muscles.  I'm going to stick with 4 days a week.  I'm thinking Thursday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday.  Every other day sounds good to me.  And I'm continuing to journal my workouts so I can track my progress, and I'm going to keep switching things up.

There are a couple of areas that I'm going to work every day, though:

Triceps
Abs/Obliques
Thighs

There are very easy exercises that I can throw in every time to target these areas.  Squats, toe touches, sumo's, tricep extensions, and there's this series of abs moves that I printed out somewhere that I can mix in as well.

I never thought I'd say this...ever...but I missed working out!!!!!!

I'm so PROUD to say that!!!

Life Happens

Hello, hello, hello.  I promise I'm not dead.  Sometimes Life happens, and sometimes it happens in a BIG, BIG way.  My sister was in the hospital for over 10 days, and just got out today.  You forget all about yourself when someone you love is hurting.

You forget meals and suddenly remember you need to eat, so you grab whatever you can.  Yikes.

Then, I am a HUGE emotional eater.   I have a bad day at work, I reach for carbs.  Reese's, bread, pasta,  Katie (yes, real names here) gets admitted to the hospital and what do I want?  Soda and blueberry roll ups.  I don't know why.  I just needed it.

Well, she's home now and I've got to get back on track.  My hip is still killing me (remember that two inch tear I so nicely gave myself?) but I've just got to stretch it out really well and hop to it.

I have been stretching every day and icing it and doing the whole medicine thing, but it's time to get back to my routines.  I'll take it easy at first but slowly work my way back to where I was and then keep pushing forward.

I want to note though, that I am keeping my doctor in the loop, and I'm not just going all Hulk on this.  I have an appointment with my physiologist next week and we're going to work together on some hip movements to really focus on getting that region back to par.  Always keep your doctor's involved if you can, folks.  Especially when you're going from fatty to fit like me.

Smoothie Queen

Ha, my title made me giggle.  It's so ridiculous. 

For about 4 days, I've been trying out a new type of breakfast.  A smoothie.  It's just ice, water, sugar free pudding (for flavor), and supplements.  These supplements were prescribed to me by my doctor and are a great, great way to save some money.  For example, the one she gave me retails at $50.00 but I only paid a $10 copay on it.

I use 1 scoop of each in my smoothie and just barely pulse it in after I've combined everything else.  The total Green has real veggies in it, so you can't overwork it.  The Daily Energy is something that has to build up in your system, and takes a few days before you start feeling the effects.

This smoothie only has 127 calories, 14 carbs, 1 gram of fat, and 12 grams of protein.  Pretty great start to the day.

Chocolate sugar free pudding and cheesecake sugar free pudding.  Different days, of course.














I'm still surprised at how yummy it is.  I'm going to keep drinking these even though I'm not able to work out for a bit.  It's still a great way to contain calorie, etc. intake.  And protein for breakfast?  Score.

Bad News Bears

Well, that was short lived.

I had to go to the doctor yesterday.  My right hip had been hurting since last Friday.  Wednesday the pain was very bad and yesterday (Thursday), the pain was so bad I was crying at work.  I decided it was time to call my doctor to see if they could find out exactly what was wrong with it.  The awesome thing about my doctor is that they have an on staff physiologist, so if it was something that just needed to be worked out, like a knot or something, then I could walk down the hallway to her.

As it turns out, I tore a muscle in my hip.  Yeah, that's right.  My doc said that it was probably just a pull at first, but because I kept going intense with my workouts, that it just kept pulling until it started to tear and now it's just torn.  Remember on Wednesday when I said I kept pooping out on my exercises and how hard it was for me...that should have been a big clue for me to stop.  But I kept pushing myself and was like "no pain, no gain".  Well, I was wrong.

The pain radiates from my lower back, just on the side all the way down my hip, through my thigh to my right knee (which already has bursitis).  I was so upset yesterday.

Treatment plan:  heat or ice for 20 minutes every 2 hours, whichever brings me greater relief.  Ibuprofen 800 mg 3 times a day, with food.  Flexeril 3 times a day until pain is tolerable.  Up water intake to help the muscle heal faster (good thing I'm already drinking so much).  The worst part....no physical activity for 2 WEEKS. 

I asked if I could walk, and she said no more than a mile 3 times a week and to go very leisurely, ie: no sweating, no pulse increase.  Right now, I've got kind of a sexy limp going on, so I can't imagine walking right now, but I might start after about a week to get myself ready to work out again.

Pretty much the worst news a new workoutee could get.  I was so proud of myself for going so hard so much, but apparently, it was too much.

Moral of the story here...listen to your body.  If you're sore, really stretch it out to see if you can tell why you're sore.  If you're as out of shape as I am, try not to push yourself so hard at first.  Only go 3-4 days a week until your body gets used to it.

Holy Toledo Chips!

76 page views today!  I never in a million thought I'd get that many views!!!!!  Thank you so much for stopping by to my page!!!

That's a great way to end a grueling workout.

I tried Zuzana's ZWOD #1 today.  I failed.  Seriously.  I knew watching her struggle that I would definitely have problems, but wow.  That girl is super strong!

I only got through the second set of burpees (I wasn't even doing the push-up part, just holding for a second...I can't do pushups yet) and got down to do the side planks and my muscles were like "nope".

So, I wrote down fail, kept the timer going and moved onto an easier routine.  I will come back to ZWOD when I get a little better.

I called this routine:

Attempt II

Leg Raises:  15 per leg, one leg at a time, tucking toe in and squeezing thigh...this really worked the inner thighs and I could feel it in my lower abs as well

Tricep Dips:  During Tabata, I would get 11 per 20 seconds, so I did 20 total, and it took about a minute

Squat Leg Lifts:  This is from Zuzana's routine, but I really liked it and could feel it in my butt big time.  I went lighter though, 8 per leg, total of 16

Push up box style:  20 reps

I did this whole thing twice then kind of fell apart the third time.  I just did each part until I couldn't anymore.

Total Time:  34:17!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That's not bad, considering all of my pauses and breaks to huff and puff.

My body is super weak today.  I think it's because I'm really pushing myself with these routines and keeping a journal pushes me even harder to get it all done.

I really hope some of the "readers" from today come back.  Now I feel even more accountable for keeping this going and letting everyone know the steps I'm taking each day.

25 minutes in HELL

It's official.  I like kicking my ass.  Also, the 30 day challenge got really lame on day 2 so I switched.

I didn't give up, I just switched to someone I really, really admire.  More on it later.

I feel like I'm dying while I'm doing it and I smell and look really disgusting but I did it!  I did the entire workout to the absolute max I could do and I stuck it out!  I've got three really important things for you today, but I'm going to put one of them in a separate blog to spread the monotony.  For this blog, two things:

1.  Use this website for your interval training.  I've been training with my computer so I can watch the routines first and really get down the posture and hold counts and such, then I crank up the music and turn on

http://www.beach-fitness.com/tabata/ 

You can set the interval to whatever you want, which is amazeballs and it changes green and red depending on rest or go, go, go.  It also has an awesome surprise at the end of each set.  For example, yesterday my routine focused on 50/10 intervals, 4 routines 3 times each.  Today it was 20/10 intervals for 8 sets, total of 4 minutes each...classic tabata.

2.  Here's the routine that kicked my ass today.  Read: it's NOT EASY! 

HIGH KNEES: Tabata

• Basically run in place with your knees as high as you can get them with your boobs out, Olympic sprint style.  It's a rough start so be sure to stretch a bit before this.

LEG/STAR/BUTT:  30 reps

• Lay on the mat with your back as flat as you can get it.  Lift both legs at the same time, raising your feet toward the ceiling.  If this is too hard, start with bent legs.  Once your feet are up in the air, split your feet out to the sides and raise your arms and shoulders and push them between your legs, like a crunch.  Yes, it looks weird.
• Lay your shoulders back down, put your feet back together and with your arms spread out on the ground, try to lift your butt ONLY off the ground just for a second.  It's harder than it sounds and you'll really feel it in your core.
• I have to be really, really honest here.  I only got about 15 done then I couldn't do anymore.  Just could not.  So, instead of just stopping, I did 45 crunches.  Something is better than nothing.

LOW JACKS: Tabata

• A low jack is a squatting jumping jack, without the flailing arms.  The lower the squat the harder it is.  I'm going to be honest with you guys and let you know my knees were just bent enough and I couldn't make it through the full tabata...I kept pushing, but it was like two jacks, break, three jacks, break, etc.

 SIDE PLANK LIFTS: 25 reps each side

• This uses muscles I bet you didn't even know you had.  Here's a pic of what it should look like:

•  If you're like me, you're going to do the beginner one, which is the leg towards the bottom is bent at the knee and goes back behind you.  As you get advanced, you can straighten both legs and your lower arm.

SCISSORS: Tabata

• Scissors is like a Russian running man.  One leg in front of the other and jump to switch legs.  You'll be surprised how tired your legs get doing this.

BRIDGE TOE TOUCH: 30 reps

• Ok, for this lay on the mat, or floor or whatever.  put one knee up with your foot on the floor like this
•  
• It's a horrid picture, but there you go (PS, that's not me!  LOL).  Then you bridge your body, which is bring your hips only toward the sky, keeping your shoulders on the ground.  If this is too hard, keep both feet on the ground while doing the bridge.
• Lower your hips back to the mat then lift one leg up to the ceiling and reach both hands up and try to do a toe touch.  Lower the foot and go back to the bridge.  Then lift the opposite leg and do a toe touch.

My body was really drained at the end and I had to force myself up to stretch, but stretching is SO IMPORTANT!!!!!  I do some floor leg stretches, like toe touches, then one of my favorite stretches is standing up, bending forward and letting my hands drag on the floor.  I'll swing them back and forth a bit to loosen everything up.  Then I'll do some sunrise poses from yoga and if my abs are ripping, which they weren't really today, I'll do some dog poses.

IT WAS HELL!!!  Ok, I have to tell you who I follow for these exercises.  Her name is Zuzana, and she used to be with BodyRock.tv, but she has branched out and goes by Zuzka Lite now.  I'm a fan of her page on Facebook, but here's her link https://www.facebook.com/ZuzkaLight  You can youtube Zuzana and all of her little videos will pop up.  I'm doing her beginner stuff now because I'm a fatty cow, but she is amazing and just amazing.  Seriously, amazing.  And her body is RIPPED!!!  I'll never look that amazing, but she definitely is inspiration.  I tried doing the bodyrock.tv exercises, but they're heavy on equipment and I have a mat and two 5 pound weights...nothing else...and I'm not going to buy any new stuff and then realize I hate the workouts.  I love Zuzana because she's mostly just body intensity, sometimes throwing in small free weights or stuff like that.  CHECK HER OUT.